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Backup Recommendations
maximumzero
I...wait, what?New Orleans, LARegistered User regular
I...wait, what?New Orleans, LARegistered User regular
So here's the deal. About a year ago I built a new computer for work. I put in a new hard drive, and rather than transferring everything from the old computer into the new one I just put the old drive in as a 2nd hard drive. My organizational skills with files are fairly poor, largely because of how much work I output in a day, but the majority of my stuff is in a number of folders on the desktop.
If either hard drive ever dies, we're fucked. That's something like 8 years worth of work orders just gone.
On my Mac at home I use and love Time Machine. The peace of mind that if my computer ever suddenly kicks the bucket, I'm covered is awesome. Is there a similar application for Windows that will back up every goddamn thing at once?
I'm on a trial for Carbonite but it's only backed up 500MB in 24 hours. Considering it's got 50+GB left to go it'll take a few weeks. Any suggestions?
If either hard drive ever dies, we're fucked. That's something like 8 years worth of work orders just gone.
On my Mac at home I use and love Time Machine. The peace of mind that if my computer ever suddenly kicks the bucket, I'm covered is awesome. Is there a similar application for Windows that will back up every goddamn thing at once?
I'm on a trial for Carbonite but it's only backed up 500MB in 24 hours. Considering it's got 50+GB left to go it'll take a few weeks. Any suggestions?
maximumzero on
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My second recommendation is to organize your shit. If you're not going to use Microsoft's "My docs, my music" etc. Then find 1 system that works for you and stick with it. Think to yourself right now, could I write down all the folders of all the shit I absolutely need?
Now wouldn't it be easier to just say: All I need backed up is c:\fucking important shit i should never lose\.
Thirdly, I don't have any suggestions for automatic backup software. BUT I can recommend a piece of software that will make copying a large amount of files from one place to the next super easy.
http://www.scootersoftware.com/ Beyond Compare. Open this baby up in "Folder compare" mode.
You've already started backing up some stuff, but you don't know how complete that backup is.
On the left side of the pane you open c:\fucking important shit i should never lose\.
On the right side you open your already started backup z:\backup folders\fucking important shit i should never lose\.
On the upper tool bar, near the middle there should be two green arrows, click the "Update right" button.
The program will only copy over stuff that isn't already there.
If a file doesn't want to be moved, this software will skip it and make a note of it.
That's all I have.
WOW. This actually scared me. Ok first lets pretend the HDD died right now. What would that mean to your company?
1. Would the company go under?
2. Could you start from scratch and keep doing business?
3. Would you have to spend X amount of time (time = money in business) rebuilding a significant portion of that lost work?
If its 1 or X (and X is large) get the F off this site stop trying to find free info and get someone to come in and either create / suggest a solution for you. Your money will be (unless you hire an idiot) well spent.
Anyway here is what I do with my personal stuff
1. Critical Stuff Automatic
For things like, tax files, critcal legal type files (resumes, will's, important scanned documents contracts etc), I encryt and stored in the cloud using drop box (google it). I use way less than 2GB so its free.
2. Critcal and Non-Critical Stuff
I use Karen Replicator to copies critcal stuff, plus music and pictures to my NAS drive once a week.
3. I do a monthly spot check of both storage methods to make sure they are up to date.
Unless you are a network engineer if your company's data is mission critical I suggest you hire an expert to help with server / backup issues.
No i'm not as anal as I sound I've just been through a data loss do to computer failure. It pissed me off, so never again, well if I can help it.
This is free and awesome and has been built into Windows for a while and so many people don't know it exists.
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I figure the TB drive is my primary go-to for if I need to pull something rightfreakingnow, and the online backup will be if I lose the computer and the hard drive in some freak apartment-block-disappearing accident. Obviously YMMV for if an online solution is practical based on the connection you're using, though. It's just that it'd be worth considering keeping an off-site backup of some sort.
The only thing to note is that unlike Time Machine, Cobian Backup is just a front-end for what amounts to a giant copy/move operation; there's no built-in restore interface, and it doesn't store a historical record of the file - it's the latest version backed up, or nothing. If all you want is to be able to retrieve the version of a file at the time it was backed up, it's fine, but other than that...
(Alternatively, the built-in Windows backup solutions are pretty decent as well. I used to use NTBackup (think that's it) with XP before switching to Windows Backup in Vista/7, but I found the latter much too slow for my liking.)